


Of Mice and Men Alternate Ending

by Suisalty



Category: Of Mice and Men
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-08-22 18:15:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16603082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Suisalty/pseuds/Suisalty
Summary: What if “Of Mice and Men” didn’t end the way it did? In this version of the ending, it wasn’t George who found Lennie, but Slim.





	Of Mice and Men Alternate Ending

**Author's Note:**

> This was a warm-up assignment for my English class but I spent way too much effort on it, and I figured out that people actually write fanfiction for this book so I thought “Why the hell not” and now I’m posting it here. If you haven’t read Of Mice and Men, why are you here? This piece starts and ends with direct lines from the last chapter of the book, so if you’d like to follow along with the events/reread the former events, just look for that quote in chapter 6.

Lennie put his hands over his ears. "He ain't, I tell ya he ain't." and he cried, "Oh George- George- George!" A man came quietly out of the brush and the rabbit scuttled back into Lennie's brain. Lennie turned around, but the man was not George.

"Lennie, why'd ya do it?" the man, Slim, asked, quietly walking over to where Lennie was sat. Lennie got onto his knees and faced Slim. Slim reached out a hand and put it to rest on Lennie's shoulder. "I know yo didn't mean to do nothin' Lennie. I knows it, George knows it, but the others don't. You can't stay round here no more, Lennie" Lennie looked at Slim, bewildered. Footsteps pounded in the brush, drawing Slim's attention to them.

"Whatcha mean I can't stay no more? Where's George?" Lennie cried out softly, looking at Slim with despair. "George'll know whatta do, he always does. Get George, George'lll fix it, George'll..." he stopped, and looked across the river. Slim was quiet, now watching Lennie's back and listening to the nearing footsteps. Suddenly, he spoke up. "George'll be comin'. George'll be here. All you gotta do is wait, Lennie." The footsteps were crashing and getting louder and louder with every passing second. Lennie continued looking across the river solemnly, seemingly resigning to some sort of fate he himself was not aware of. Slim took this opportunity and slipped Carlson's luger out of Lennie's pocket. The footsteps got louder, then quieter, as if fading into the distance. The sounds of one person walking remained, yet it was quiet.

George slipped through the brush almost silently, and nodded to Slim. Slim passed the gun over and they switched positions behind Lennie. George brought his hand up to Lennie's head and removed his hat, retelling their future plans as he did. Lennie smiled, blissfully unaware of George raising the luger up to the back of his head, hands trembling. George steadied his hands and his breathing, and he pulled the trigger. A bang rang out in the brush, so loud it startled every animal nearby.

With a blank expression, George passed the gun back to Slim, and they exited the brush quietly, walking over to Carlson and Curley to report Lennie's absence, As they walked, Slim put a hand on George's shoulder.

"You hadda, George. You hadda. After we tell them guys that they don't needa worry, let's get a drink, alright?" he spoke softly to George as they walked. George, still looking off into the distance with a blank expression, replied. "Yeah. a drink."

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first time I’m posting here lmao, I don’t know if that’s sad or not. I don’t think I’ll be posting more stuff like this, unless I get carried away with another English prompt. I don’t have motivation to write often, but if I do, it’ll either be an original work or bnha fanfiction, though I doubt anyone reading this is interested in that. Uhhhh this was a shitshow jsksjwjdb but uhhh yeah thanks so much for reading!!


End file.
